Hi Walter-
As a model maker, I have railed against the 40/128 file/line restrictions
causing me to unnecessarily abridge/revise/confuse model names and
trace-ability to netlists/designs/revisions/etc. 80/256 would greatly
alleviate these problems. Note that the line usage in the [Executable] line
includes two copies of the model name string (.dll/.so and .ami) PLUS the
compiler/OS string, which can be longer than one might casually imagine.
As to case, I never rely on case to distinguish two files, but would like
to have upper case not explicitly disallowed. I'm a big boy; I can protect
myself (and my customers) from myself.
Regards,
Bob
On Tue, Oct 25, 2016 at 3:19 PM, Walter Katz <wkatz@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
All,
Currently IBIS says:
3. To facilitate portability between operating systems, file names used
in a .ibs file must only have lower case characters. File names should
have a basename of no more than forty (40) characters followed by a period
(“.”), followed by a file name extension of no more than three characters.
The file name and extension must use characters from the set (space, “ ”,
0x20 is not included):
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 _ ^ $ ~ ! # % & - { } ) ( @ ‘ `
The file name and extension are recommended to be lower case on systems
that support such names.
I would like to submit a BIRD that changes this to:
3. File names should be no more than eighty (80) characters. The file
name must use characters from the following set(space, “ ”, 0x20 is not
included): (Should this be increased to 128 characters and also increase
to the length of IBIS lines to 256 characters.)
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 _ ^ $ ~ ! # % & - { } ) ( @ ‘ ` . /
Note that files names in the Windows operating system are case insensitive
and case preserving (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_preservation),
while file names in Linux operating systems are case sensitive. File names
in IBIS files should be case sensitive so that the IBIS file and the files
it references will work properly on both Windows and Linux operating
systems. The “/” character is used to delineate folders in a file name. The
character sequences “..” and “//” are not permitted. The first and last
character
of a file name shall not be “/”.The EDA tool is responsible for making
any operating system-specific adjustments (for example, replacing forward
slashes "/" with backslashes "\") if necessary.
The characters after the last “.” are considered the file name extension.
There are places in this document that specify the file name extension for
specific files types (e.g. .ibs, .pkg, and .ami). These extensions are case
sensitive.
In IBIS 6.1, IBIS files are in the same directory, and IBIS “files” were
described as having a base name and an extent. As a result of this change,
“file” shall mean the file name, including the full path relative to the
directory containing the .ibs file (or .ebd file). A file may also be a
directory (or folder).
Note that this relaxes almost all rules on file names. The space character
remains an illegal file name character. When an IBIS file is delivered all
supporting files shall either be in the same directory as the IBIS file,
or in folders below this directory. Absolute files names (e.g. that begin
with // or C:) are not permitted. One reason for allowing paths in IBIS
file names is that IBIS AMI modeling, and Interconnect Modeling may result
in a large number of supporting files. Users and EDA tools may choose to
move these supporting files into other directories, and these files may be
put on a tool specific search path or adding symbolic links to file names.
The IBIS parser should have the option to report such non-standard file
names as either errors, warnings or allowed.
I looked at all occurrences of the string “file”. I made some changes that
reflect some existing rules (like a file can end in a “.”. I believe that
no other changes are required, although we could remove the following
redundant statement that occurs in multiple locations in the document.
Furthermore, lower-case file_name entries are recommended to avoid
possible conflicts with file naming conventions under different operating
systems. Case differences between otherwise identical file_name entries or
circuit_name entries should be avoided. External languages may not support
case-sensitive distinctions.
Walter
Walter Katz
wkatz@xxxxxxxxxx
Phone 303.449-2308
Mobile 303.335-6156
